


Rescued

by Cornflower_Blue



Series: Eragon Story Snippets [5]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Alternate Scene, Extra Scene, Gen, Katrina POV, No editing we publish like men, Post Helingrad rescue op, Scene originally not included in text
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 05:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18004364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornflower_Blue/pseuds/Cornflower_Blue
Summary: Katrina was scared.She did not want to be scared. She had never wanted to be someone who needed rescuing either. And yet here she was, terrified out of her mind, apparently on the back of a dragon, blindfolded because she could not see properly, and clinging to Roran’s arms around her as the mountain she was on top of lurched and made sounds she had never heard another animal make.Katrina is rescued from Helingrad.





	Rescued

Katrina was scared.

She did not want to be scared. She had never wanted to be someone who needed rescuing either. And yet here she was, terrified out of her mind, apparently on the back of a dragon, blindfolded because she could not see properly, and clinging to Roran’s arms around her as the mountain she was on top of lurched and made sounds she had never heard another animal make.

“Eragon!” Roran shouted from behind her and suddenly there was wind in her hair and the exposed parts of her skin.

“No! Saphira, go back!” Katrina could feel the movement of the creature under her, could hear Roran shouting in her ear as he begged to go back for his cousin, and yet a part of her was still convinced this was all a dream. A very real dream, but a dream nonetheless.

Maybe she had gone insane in that dark cell she had been kept in, maybe this was all a fever dream created by the madness. Because yes, she had expected Roran to come for her, from the moment she had been taken she had known that Roran would save her, it was only a matter of time. 

But the fact that he had apparently come on dragonback, and that Eragon, the cousin who had run away with Brom and most likely died if not disappeared into the depths of Alegasia, was the dragon’s rider just seemed too strange to her.

Part of her was more willing to accept that her brain was plucking figures from her past, people she had known before she had been kidnapped and shoved into that nightmare cell. That she should not get her hopes up that she was truly being rescued, to not get her hopes up so that when she woke up from this dream back in the dark with those creatures ripped right from the nightmares of mankind.

But she wanted so badly to believe that she was free, to believe that Roran had come for her. So she ignored the part of her that was whispering it was all a lie, to not get her hopes up. Instead, she wrapped her one arm around where Roran was holding her, clutching him tightly to her while still holding on to the handhold she had been given as they moved up and down on their ride.

After another moment or two, something felt different, as if they were descending. Before they were jerked forwards and backwards again and Roran started moving behind her.

He helped her down from their ride and even though she wore a blindfold, she could still vaguely see thanks to the daylight shining all around them. This was her first look at the world outside her cell, the first look at the world beyond her waking nightmare. She wanted to take off the blindfold and take it all in, but she knew it would hurt too much. How ironic that the outside world would hurt her to look at it when for so long she had wanted nothing more than to be here. 

And then she turned around and got her first real look at Saphira, and even through her blindfold, what she saw before her took her breath away.

Never in her wildest dreams growing up had she imagined that she would ever get to see a dragon, and even if she had conceived of the idea, she never could have imagined a creature as beautiful as what she saw before her. The dragon’s pelt sparkled like thousands of jewels, all interwoven with each other, the lines of its body were powerful yet lithe. No other creature in the world could have rivaled its beauty, no other creature could have struck Katrina with such awe.

She knew right then and there that all of this was real. The creature who stood before her could never have been a part of that dark, desperate, maddening world she had been abducted into.

And then she noticed that Roran, her husband to-be who had rescued her, who had apparently managed to conscript not only his missing cousin, who everyone in Carvahall had thought must have died when he disappeared with Brom, but also a dragon into his rescue mission.

She felt an all consuming love well up in her for this man. This man who had done the impossible. This man who had stormed her prison, who had killed her captors. This man who had pulled her from the permanent darkness and back into the light and the world.

This man who was now advancing on the dragon, his shoulders set in a way that could only mean trouble.

“How could you leave him there?” Roran snarled at the dragon. The dragon swung its head around to stare at him through one giant eye. Katrina was not completely sure, but she got the feeling that the dragon did not appreciate the way Roran was behaving.

“Roran! Stop!” Katrina lunged forwards, grabbing one of his arms before he could move any farther. Roran stopped, but the tension in his body did not dissipate and he did not turn around to look at her.

“She left him Katrina, she just left him there!” Roran sounded furious, but under that, he sounded devastated. Katrina was not sure the dragon heard that devastation though, she was not sure anyone who knew him less than she did would have heard it really. 

“It sounded like it was Eragon’s choice to stay behind,” Katrina said, trying to sooth him.

“No! He was supposed to come back with us!” Roran said, and Katrina could hear the layer of pain he was struggling with under his anger. He took another step towards Saphira, as if he wanted to start berating the dragon again and Katrina tightened her grip on his arm. She could not have him mauled by a dragon before they really escaped.

“Roran, don’t,” Katrina said, her voice just above a whisper, but she knew that Roran would hear her. He always heard her when she spoke, no matter the volume.

“I just got him back Katrina,” Roran said, his voice breaking. Finally he turned to face her and threw his arms around her. She supported him as he buried his face in her shoulder and let out a heartbreaking sob.

“I just got him back and now I’ve lost him again.”

“He’ll come back, you haven’t lost him.”

Katrina kept holding him, whispering comfort. Before she knew it, Roran was pulling away and drying his eyes.

“Let’s grab our stuff and start moving, it’s a long way back to the Varden.”

“The Varden?”

“I would have gone to the ends of the world to rescue you Katrina.” 

Katrina kissed Roran fiercely. This could never have been a dream, she realized. They loved each other for this to be anything but real.

When they broke apart, Roran went to pick up the packs he and Eragon must have stashed there last night. Katrina was left to make her way over to the dragon, figuring she would just get in the way if she tried to help and knowing that Roran needed a bit of time to compose himself.

She tripped over the uneven ground once or twice as she walked, but other than that, she made it to the dragon’s side with no issue.

She almost jumped out of her skin when an alien mind touched her’s.

She did jump when the mind touching her’s spoke.

You are an interesting woman Katrina, the voice said.

Katrina looked around, swinging her head back and forth slowly. She had the presence of mind not to look panicked because she did not want to alarm Roran unless there was something to alarm him about. The only movement in the area however was the dragon’s head swinging around to look at her.

You are surprised I can speak? You assumed I was a typical beast? The voice said again.

For a moment, Katrina held perfectly still as everything fell into place and she considered all the the possibilities before she refocused on Saphira and the mind touching hers.

“You?” She asked, the word barely over a whisper, but still Saphira seemed to hear her.

She pulled her lips back, showing a flash of razor sharp teeth. The only reason Katrina held her ground was the feeling of amusement coming from Saphira.

It still surprises me that humans will assume that I am not intelligent enough to have thoughts, much less share them with others.

“Forgive me Saphira, for my ignorance,” Katrina said, hyper aware of the teeth the dragon was still showing.

I supposed it might be to be expected, with how long humans have gone without dragons and how short your memories are, Saphira said. She closed her mouth and Katrina relaxed just slightly.

A part of her was still refusing to accept that she was having a conversation with an actual, real life dragon. But the other half of her figured her day had been strange enough already, this might as well happen. She had been rescued from the mountain layer of the Raz’ac, she had ridden on a dragon, she had been reunited with her fiance, and had been briefly reacquainted with her fiance’s missing brother. There was no more real room in her for any more shock, awe, or fear. She had reached her limit for today, and possibly even the next week.

“Alright, we’re ready to go,” Roran said, walking over to stand by her side.

“So Saphira talks,” Katrina said as Roran stashed the packs.

Roran let out a hearty laugh and Katrina felt as if the whole world lit up just a bit brighter, the weight on her shoulders lifted so it no longer felt like she was carrying the weight of the world at the sound.

“Yeah, bit of a shock when I first learned it, we were sailing into a battle and down from the clouds comes Eragon on Saphira’s back, yelling his war cry. Then he reached out to me with his mind and boom, suddenly I was having a conversation with him and Saphira,” Roran said as he helped her back onto Saphira and then followed her up.

Saphira lifted her wings and then they were flying as Roran continued to regall her with tales of all that had happened since they had been separated.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!!!! So this is the last snippet I have planned for the Inheritance Cycle at the moment. I might do more in the future, but for now, this is it!!! It’s also the longest snippet so far!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the stories and I’d love to hear back from you!!! Have a great day!!!


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